Suncream

May 2022, I was sketching objects I could see around me in my dining room; I really liked the curvy shape of the suncream bottle, so much that I turned it into a stencil.

After all the sketching I began making black and white still life collages in my sketchbook. I often find it tricky just working in black and white. I made two collages and - while I liked them - there was a feeling of tightness and that they didn’t wholly feel like me. Perhaps I had been thinking too much about contrast and composition while I was working on them.

Before I stopped for lunch I spotted the stencil and decided to cut out some shapes from some scraps of black and white paper I had lying around. The papers were from where I had been removing black paint from my roller - so the paint gets lighter as I continue to roll. I like that effect. Before I knew it I had taken some paper, painted a grey background, added more white over the top to lighten it, and started arranging the suncream bottles and the negative shapes that remained after cutting. I started sticking them down. I wasn’t thinking about composition - just where the next piece would fit. And voila! You see the outcome: Suncream.

Sometimes the best things happen when you’re not trying too hard. I tried to make several similar paintings after finishing suncream and only one of them really got close.